He'll Be Home For Christmas

My Brother that is.

He'll be home for christmas...

you can count on that....

!!!

After serving a 2 year mission for

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

in the Philippines,

my brother is home!

It seemed like the past two years have gone by super fast,

yet it felt like it had been soooo long since I'd seen Cliff last.

All last week, I kept telling myself,

"Cliff is coming home THIS Saturday"

I could hardly believe it myself!

I'd be sitting at work,

then that thought would pop into my head.

And I would get sooo excited!

Friday was pretty much unreal.

All throughout the day, I'd be thinking about how Cliff was on a plane...

HOME!

The best part was that my mom had the option of having him routed through either LA or San Francisco before heading to Sacramento.

She chose LA, so that Kevin and I could greet him when he first step foot in

the US of A!

So I got to see him first!

Haha!

Kevin and I were kinda unsure about trying to find out way around LAX,

but it turned out to be quite easy.

Who woulda thought?!

We got to the terminal where he would be landing.

I had my sign ready and everything.

We were able to check the flight status and then eavesdrop on those around us to figure out about how long it was taking all the passengers to get through customs.

We would watch as the different groups of stewardesses came through to try and get a better idea how much longer we would have to wait!

After about 45 min,

BOOM!

We saw the stewardesses that were on Cliff's airline.

Any minute now...

I was standing in the front row,

so freaking excited to see him,

and I already decided that I would cross that

"forbidden line"

that we were supposed to wait for the passengers to cross before greeting them.

There was no way I was going to be able to make myself just stand there once I saw him.

Kevin was about 20 feet to my left so that he could get a good angle to film him entering at.

Then all of a sudden I hear Kevin talking to someone,

so I look over to my left,

AND THERE HE WAS!

I freaked out, screamed, and ran over there

and gave him the biggest hug I probably ever have given him in my life.

Then it happened.

I cried.

Yes, I CRIED.

I never cry.

Kevin even asked me before we got there if I was going to cry.

I knew for a fact I wasn't.

Boy, was I wrong.

Apparently, when passengers have connecting flights,

they come out this random door way on the side;

that's how we missed his entrance.

It was so fabulous to see Cliff.

His flight got in around 2pm and his flight to Sacramento wasn't supposed to leave until 5.

BUT

his flight got delayed a few hours

and we got to hang out with him even more!

Man, I missed this kid.

I had to take a bunch of pics!

My one and only sibling is back!

Since we had so much time now before his flight home,

we asked him if there was anywhere he wanted to go eat.

He chose

TACO BELL.

(PS: He lost 60 pounds while he was in the Philippines!)

We went to Taco Bell.

Ate some good food.

And chatted it up with Cliffy.

It's soooo awesome to know he's home and to be able to call him whenever I want!

I am so proud of my brother.

He is seriously just so awesome.

And I know there are a buncha people who would agree with me too!

Cliff has always been such a great example to me,

and I could not imagine my life without having him as a brother.

We'll head up to Sac next weekend for his Homecoming Party

and to hear him speak in Sacrament Meeting.

&

We'll be back again for Christmas!

I have to spend as much time as possible with him before he heads back up to school.